Information processing for creating a document digest

ABSTRACT

Digest screen display content deciding means selects display elements belonging to respective regions of a document based on display priorities of the display elements, which are obtained by digest screen display priority information creating means, and decides selected display elements as display content of a digest screen under a condition where a total display area does not exceed a required display area. A merging relationship among the regions is set based on layout information for the regions, created by digest screen region layout information creating means. Display content deciding means decides the display content of a detail screen based on the merging relationship among the regions, and creates a digest of the detail screen based on control information created by control information creating means. Moreover, digest screen display content changing means changes the display content of the digest screen in response to an operation of a user.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention is directed to an information processingapparatus, a server, a method and a program for creating a digest of adocument, such as a Web page, the layout of which is predetermined by acreator.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A variety of documents are displayed on a display device of a computer.A Web page accessed through the Internet is one of such documents.Incidentally, as types and contents of information submitted through theInternet have been enriched more in recent years, an amount ofinformation per Web page has also been increased more. Consequently,there has occurred a situation where the Web page becomes too large tofit in a display screen of the display device. Such a situation is oneoccurring also in the case where the aged and persons having weakeyesight zoom the document for the purpose of reading charactersdisplayed on the display device.

This situation where the document such as the Web page becomes too largeto fit in the display screen causes a plurality of problems describedbelow. First, there occurs a problem that a user is forced to perform ascroll operation. This scroll operation is usually performed by raisingor lowering a scroll bar with a mouse, and therefore, becomes acumbersome operation for a user. Particularly, for an aged person and auser who is not good at adjusting his/her body delicately, the scrolloperation is one involving difficulty.

Moreover, since it becomes unable to view the whole page at a glance,such problems as below also occur particularly for the aged person: itbecomes difficult to grasp the layout of the whole of the page (load oncomprehension); it becomes difficult to find a target section from thewhole of the page (load on attention); and it is necessary to remember acontent of an upper part of the page when reading a lower part thereof(load on a shortterm memory). Today, when our society is aging rapidly,such problems as described above are serious.

As a method for solving the problems described above, a method forcreating a digest of the document such as the Web page is conceivable,in which a display area of the document is fitted within an areadesignated by a reader. In this case, it is desirable if not only thedisplay area is merely fitted to the designated area but also areasoccupied by respective portions constituting the document can beallocated in accordance with significance thereof to effectively utilizethe display area.

Heretofore, as this type of technology, there has been a method forcreating a digest of the Web page, in which a layout of the Web page isautomatically analyzed based on tags of an HTML (refer to PatentDocument 1). In this method, the Web page is divided while tracing atree structure, in which strength of each tag of the HTML is reflectedon a hierarchy, from a root thereof to a leaf direction, and the pagethe digest of which is to be displayed is sorted. Then, contents to bedisplayed in the respective regions sorted in accordance withsignificance of the tags of the HTML are decided so as not to deleteimportant information.

Moreover, as another conventional technology, there is a method forcreating a digest of a Web page based on annotations (refer toNon-Patent Document 1). In this method, locations and significance ofregions, which are obtained by external annotations, are utilized.Specifically, the locations of the regions on the digest are decidedbased on the regions designated by the annotations, and a plurality ofregions designated to have high significance by the annotations aredisplayed while trying to maintain original area ratios thereof as muchas possible.

Furthermore, as still another conventional technology, there is a methodin which a layout of a plurality of articles are automatically decided(refer to Patent Document 2). In this method, articles are being dividedinto groups of the articles the numbers of which become smaller step bystep with reference to significance of the articles, and display areasfor the groups of articles to be displayed are being decidedsequentially until all the numbers of articles belonging to therespective groups of articles become one.

[Patent Document 1] Gazette of Japanese Patent LaidOpen No. 2001-184344(pp. 5-6, FIG. 13)

[Patent Document 2] Gazette of Japanese Patent LaidOpen No. Hei 9(1997)-330314

[Non-Patent Document 1] Maeda and three others, “Digesting Technologyfor Web Page Based on Annotation,” Technical Research Report (WelfareInformation Technology) of The Institute of Electronics, Information andCommunication Engineers, 2001, vol. 101, No. 263, pp. 25-30

However, in the foregoing digest creation method using the tags of theHTML, the Web page is being divided in accordance with the treestructure in which the layout is reflected, and therefore, informationcannot be shared among the regions that have already been branched, andthe areas cannot be allocated to the regions optimal for the whole page.

In the foregoing digest creation method using the annotations, the areasare allocated to regions in consideration of the significance thereoffor the whole page. However, in this conventional technology, all of theregions are displayed in order to ensure accesses to digested regions.Therefore, it cannot be said that the limited display area can beeffectively utilized, and when the number of regions is large, it is notensured that the digest fits in the display area required by the reader.

Also in the foregoing method in which the layout of the plurality ofarticles is decided, similarly to the above, the display areas of thearticles are decided for the whole of the page in accordance with thesignificance of the articles. However, in this conventional technology,the articles are grouped and arranged in accordance with thesignificance thereof, and therefore, this technology cannot be appliedto a document the layout of which is predetermined. In addition, in thistechnology, a relatively few number of articles are assumed, and all ofthe articles are to be displayed. Accordingly, it becomes impossible toensure that the articles will be fitted in the area required by thereader when the number of articles becomes larger. Note that, when thetotal area is forcibly limited, only a small area insufficient forpractical use will be allocated to an article the significance of whichis low.

Hence, it is desirable to realize a system for creating a digest of adocument, in which a document, such as a Web page, the layout of whichis predetermined by a creator, is transformed to certainly guaranteethat the transformed document will fit within a display area required bya reader, and areas are optimally allocated to divided regions so as tomake the most of the display area. At this time, it is necessary toensure accesses to information lost by creating the digest.

From this point of view, for example, in the foregoing digest creationmethod using the tags of the HTML, when a desired region is designated,the whole content of the region is displayed by detailed contentdisplaying means, and such lost information can be acquired. However,accesses to regions that are not displayed on a digest screen at allcannot be ensured by this method.

Moreover, it is desirable to realize a system enabling such browsing asapproaching a target portion, in which digests are created also ondetail screens, and a range from which information is to be acquired isnarrowed step by step while confirming the whole structure of a page.Furthermore, from a viewpoint of providing a more comfortable browsingenvironment, it is desirable to realize a system for changing displaysof digests and detailed contents in response to an operation of a user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, there is now provided systems apparatus and methods providinga technology for creating a digest, in which a document, the layout ofwhich is predetermined by a creator, is transformed to make certain thatthe transformed document is fitted within a display area required by areader.

Another aspect of the present invention provides a technology enablingsuch browsing of a document as approaching a target portion, in which arange from which information is to be acquired is narrowed step by stepwhile confirming the whole structure of the document.

It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide a morecomfortable browsing environment, in which a display content of a digestscreen is changed in response to an operation of a user.

In order to achieve these aspects, the present invention provides aninformation processing apparatus for creating a digest of a document thelayout of which is determined, the document including a plurality ofregions, each region including one or more display elements, theapparatus comprising: means for selecting the display elements based ondisplay priorities of the display elements, and for deciding all ofselected display elements as a display content of a digest screen undera condition where a total display area of all of the selected displayelements does not exceed a required display area; and means for settinga merging relationship among the regions by deciding a merging region,with which a region not being displayed on the digest screen is merged,from among regions displayed on the digest screen based on layoutinformation for the regions in the document, all of the regions beingincluded in the document.

According to the present invention, it can be ascertain that thedocument, such as the Web page, the layout of which is predetermined bythe creator is transformed to fit within the display area required bythe reader.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, because the displaycontent of the digest screen can be changed in response to the operationof the user, a browsing environment capable of sensitively coping with auser's wish can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention and its embodiments will be more fully appreciated byreference to the following detailed description of advantageous andillustrative embodiments in accordance with the present invention whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1( a) is a conceptual view showing an example of a configuration ofa system realizing a method of the present invention;

FIG. 1( b) is a conceptual view showing an example of a configuration ofa computer system realizing the method of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the example of the configuration ofthe system realizing the method of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of portions relating to digest screen display,which are extracted from FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an overall flowchart showing an example of a method forcreating a digest screen;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for creating asequence of display elements arrayed in order of display priorities;

FIG. 6( a) is a view showing states of the display elements for eachregion before being sorted in order of the display priorities;

FIG. 6( b) is a view showing a sequence of the display elements afterbeing sorted;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for creating a treerepresenting a layout of regions;

FIG. 8( a) is a view showing a Web page formed of a plurality of theregions;

FIG. 8( b) is a tree representing a layout of the regions of the Webpage;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for deciding adisplay content of the digest screen;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for setting amerging relationship among the regions;

FIG. 11( a) is a view conceptually showing a state of the Web page shownin FIG. 8( a) after visible/invisible regions on the digest screen arefixed;

FIG. 11( b) is a view showing an actual appearance of the Web page shownin FIG. 11( a) on a Web browser;

FIG. 12( a) is a view showing a state of the tree shown in FIG. 8( b)after the visible/invisible regions on the digest screen are fixed;

FIG. 12( b) is a view showing a state of the tree shown in FIG. 12( a)after region IDs of visible nodes are set;

FIG. 12( c) is a view showing a state of the tree shown in FIG. 12( b)after region IDs of invisible nodes are set;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of portions relating to detail screendisplay, which are extracted from FIG. 2;

FIG. 14 is an overall flowchart showing an example of a method fordisplaying a detail screen;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for creating adigest of the detail screen;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram of portions relating to a change of displayon the digest screen, which are extracted from FIG. 2;

FIG. 17 is an overall flowchart showing an example of a method forchanging a display content of the digest screen;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for changing thedisplay content of the digest screen based on a sequence of displayelements added with display/non-display marks;

FIGS. 19 (a) (b) and (c) give views showing states of sequences ofdisplay elements when a specific region is enlarged, FIG. 19( a) is aview showing a state before change;

FIG. 19( b) is a view showing a state after the display marks are added;

FIG. 19( c) is a view showing a state after the change; and

FIGS. 20 (a), (b) and (c) show states of the sequences of the displayelements when a specific region is reduced: FIG. 20 (a) is a viewshowing a state before change;

FIG. 20( b) is a view showing a state after the non-display marks areadded;

FIG. 20( c) is a view showing a state after the change.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides methods, systems and apparatus forproviding a technology for creating a digest, in which a document, thelayout of which is predetermined by a creator, is transformed to makecertain that the transformed document is fitted within a display arearequired by a reader. At this time, areas are adapted to be optimallyallocated to divided regions so as to make the most of the display area,and accesses to information lost by creating the digest of the documentare ensured.

The present invention also provides a technology enabling such browsingof a document as approaching a target portion, in which a range fromwhich information is to be acquired is narrowed step by step whileconfirming the whole structure of the document.

The present invention further provides a more comfortable browsingenvironment, in which a display content of a digest screen is changed inresponse to an operation of a user.

The present invention provides an information processing apparatus forcreating a digest of a document the layout of which is determined, thedocument including a plurality of regions, each region including one ormore display elements, the apparatus comprising: means for selecting thedisplay elements based on display priorities of the display elements,and for deciding all of selected display elements as a display contentof a digest screen under a condition where a total display area of allof the selected display elements does not exceed a required displayarea; and means for setting a merging relationship among the regions bydeciding a merging region, with which a region not being displayed onthe digest screen is merged, from among regions displayed on the digestscreen based on layout information for the regions in the document, allof the regions being included in the document.

Moreover, the information processing apparatus according to the presentinvention can further comprise means for deciding, as a display contentof a detail screen, a region group including the regions displayed onthe digest screen and a region merged with the displayed regions inresponse to that a detail display of the displayed regions is required.Furthermore, this information processing apparatus can further comprisemeans for creating control information for controlling a display of thedetail screen, and the means for deciding the display content of thedetail screen can create a digest of the detail screen based on thecontrol information when the region group is too large to fit in therequired display area.

Moreover, the information processing apparatus according to anotheraspect of the present invention can further comprise means for changingthe display content of the digest screen based on an operation of auser. Here, the changing means can include means for automaticallychanging the display content of the digest screen, accompanying theoperation of the user.

Moreover, the present invention provides a server for creating a digestof a document the layout of which is determined, the server transmittinginformation for creating the digest of the document the layout of whichis determined to a client terminal together with the document, theserver comprising: means for obtaining display priorities of a pluralityof display elements belonging to each of regions of the document basedon attributes of the display elements; and means for creating layoutinformation for the regions in the document. Furthermore, the means forobtaining the display priorities can further include: means forarraying, for each of the regions, display elements belonging to theregions in accordance with a predetermined criterion; means forobtaining a ratio of a cumulative length of each of the arrayed displayelements in each of the regions by dividing the cumulative length by atotal length of the region; and means for dividing the ratio of thecumulative length by a significance of the region to which the displayelement belongs, the ratio having been obtained for each of the displayelements.

Moreover, the present invention provides a method for creating a digestof a document the layout of which is determined, the document includinga plurality of regions, each region including one or more displayelements, the method comprising the steps of: selecting the displayelements based on display priorities of the display elements, and fordeciding all of selected display elements as a display content of adigest screen under a condition where a total display area of all of thedisplay elements does not exceed a required display area; and setting amerging relationship among the regions by deciding a merging region,with which a region not being displayed on the digest screen is merged,from among regions displayed on the digest screen based on layoutinformation for the regions in the document, all of the regions beingincluded in the document.

Moreover, the method according to the present invention for creating adigest of a document the layout of which is determined can furthercomprise the step of deciding, as a display content of a detail screen,a region group including the regions of the document displayed on thedigest screen and the region merged with the displayed regions inresponse to that a detail display of the displayed regions is required.Furthermore, this method can further comprise the steps of: creatingcontrol information for controlling a display of the detail screen; andcreating a digest of the detail screen based on the control informationwhen the region group is too large to fit in the required display area.

Moreover, the method according to another aspect of the presentinvention for creating a digest of a document the layout of which isdetermined can further comprise the step of changing the display contentof the digest screen based on an operation of a user.

Moreover, the present invention provides a program for creating a digestof a document the layout of which is determined, the document includinga plurality of regions, each region including one or more displayelements, the program allowing a computer to realize: a function toselect the display elements based on display priorities of the displayelements, and to decide all of selected display elements as a displaycontent of a digest screen under a condition where a total display areaof all of the selected display elements does not exceed a requireddisplay area; and a function to set a merging relationship among theregions by deciding a merging region, with which a region not beingdisplayed on the digest screen is merged, from among regions displayedon the digest screen based on layout information for the regions in thedocument, all of the regions being included in the document.

Moreover, the program according to the present invention for creating adigest of a document the layout of which is determined can further allowthe computer to realize a function to decide, as a display content of adetail screen, a region group including the regions displayed on thedigest screen and the region merged with the displayed regions inresponse to that a detail display of the displayed regions is required.Furthermore, this program can further allow the computer to realize: afunction to create control information for controlling a display of thedetail screen; and a function to create a digest of the detail screenbased on the control information when the region group is too large tofit in the required display area.

Moreover, the program according to another aspect of the presentinvention for creating a digest of a document the layout of which isdetermined can further allow the computer to realize a function tochange the display content of the digest screen based on an operation ofa user.

According to the present invention, it can be guaranteed that thedocument, such as the Web page, the layout of which is predetermined bythe creator is transformed to fit within the display area required bythe reader. Accordingly, for example, if the display area required bythe reader is set at an area of a current window, it is guaranteed thata scroll operation for browsing the document is not required. Moreover,the display elements of the display content of the digest screen areselected based on the display priorities of the display elements, andtherefore, it is made possible to effectively utilize the limiteddisplay area in terms of information acquisition. Furthermore, regionsthat are not displayed on the digest screen at all are merged withregions partially or entirely displayed on the digest screen, and themerging relationship is set between such display areas and suchnon-display areas. Therefore, accesses to all information lost bycreating the digest of the document can be ensured.

Moreover, according to the present invention, because the digest is alsocreated for the detail screen, it is made possible to constantly confirmthe whole structure of the page, and such browsing as approaching atarget portion by narrowing step by step a range from which informationis to be acquired is enabled.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, because the displaycontent of the digest screen can be changed in response to the operationof the user, a browsing environment capable of sensitively coping with auser's wish can be provided. Particularly, when the display content isautomatically changed accompanying the operation of the user, forexample, when a region for which the user requires a display of a detailcontent is automatically reduced, a situation is eliminated, where aspot that has been browsed once is undesirably displayed many times, andthus a very comfortable browsing environment for the user is provided.

The present invention will be described below in detail based onembodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. However, it is possibleto embody the present invention in many different modes, and the presentinvention should not be interpreted as being limited to descriptioncontents of the present embodiments. Note that the same referencenumerals will be added to the same elements throughout the whole ofthese embodiments.

Although the embodiments below mainly describe a system or a method, thepresent invention can also be embodied as a program usable by a computerbesides the system and the method, as obvious to those skilled in theart. Hence, the present invention can choose an embodiment as hardware,an embodiment as software, or an embodiment as a combination of softwareand hardware.

FIG. 1( a) is a conceptual view showing an example of a configuration ofa system, to which a method for creating a digest of a document thelayout of which is determined according to the present invention isapplied. In this embodiment of the present invention, the informationprocessing apparatus 100 transmits an access request to the proxy server300 through the Internet in order to acquire desired data from the Webserver 200. Preferably, the access request is realized as an HTTPrequest known to those skilled in the art. The proxy server 300 relaysthe access request to the Web server 200 through the Internet, andrelays response data from the Web server 200 to the informationprocessing apparatus 100 through the Internet. In such a way, theinformation processing apparatus 100 receives the desired response data.The information processing apparatus 100 is a known terminal connectableto the Internet, and is realizable as appropriate by those skilled inthe art. It is advantageous to connect the information processingapparatus 100 to the Internet by dial-up and the like through an ISP(Internet Service Provider, not shown). Such a connection of theinformation processing apparatus 100 to the ISP is not limited to thedial-up, but the connection may be constantly made by use of a dedicatedline, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), CATV (Cable Television)and the like.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the proxy server 300 can berealized by a computer system having a hardware configuration as shownin FIG. 1( b). The computer system includes the central processing unit(CPU) 1 and the main memory 4. The CPU 1 and the main memory 4 areconnected to the hard disk devices 13 and 30 as auxiliary storagedevices through the bus 2. Moreover, removable storages (externalstorage systems having exchangeable recording media) such as theflexible disk device 20, the MO device 28 and the CD-ROM devices 26 and29 are connected to the bus 2 through the flexible disk controller 19,the IDE controller 25, the SCSI controller 27 and the like, which areassociated therewith.

The recording media such as a flexible disk, an MO and a CD-ROM areinserted into the removable storages such as the flexible disk device20, the MO device 28 and the CD-ROM devices 26 and 29, respectively. Acode of a computer program for embodying the present invention by givingcommands to the CPU and the like in cooperation with an operating systemcan be recorded in the flexible disk and the like, the hard disk devices13 and 30 and the ROM 14. The computer program is executed by beingloaded on the main memory 4. The computer program can be recorded afterbeing compressed. Alternatively, the computer program can be dividedinto a plurality of pieces, which can be then recorded in a plurality ofmedia.

The computer system can further include, as user interface hardware, thepointing device 7 such as a mouse, the keyboard 6, and the display 12for submitting visual data to a user. Moreover, it is possible toconnect the computer system to a printer (not shown) through theparallel port 16 and to a modem (not shown) through the serial port 15.It is possible for the computer system to make a connection to a networkthrough a set of the serial port 15 and the modem, the communicationadapter 18 (Ethernet® card, token ring card) or the like, and tocommunicate with other computers and the like.

The speaker 23 receives, through the amplifier 22, an audio signalsubjected to D/A conversion (digital/analog conversion) by the audiocontroller 21, and outputs the received signal as a sound. Moreover, theaudio controller 21 subjects audio information received from themicrophone 24 to A/D conversion (analog/digital conversion), thus makingit possible to capture audio information from the outside of the systemand put it into the system.

From the above description, it will be easily understood that the proxyserver 300 in this embodiment of the present invention is realized by aninformation processing apparatus such as a main frame, a workstation, ausual personal computer (PC), a laptop PC, a notebook PC, a palmtop PC,a network computer and a PDA (Personal Data Assistant) or a combinationthereof. However, these constituent elements are for illustrativepurpose, and all of these constituent elements do not necessarily becomeessential constituent elements of the present invention.

The information processing apparatus 100 and the Web server 200 are alsorealizable by computer systems having similar hardware configurations.For the Web server, the proxy server and the information processingterminal, which are for use in embodying the present invention, variousalterations such as embodying the respective hardware constituentelements thereof by combining a plurality of machines and allocatingfunctions thereto are ones that can easily be assumed by those skilledin the art. Naturally, these alterations are concepts incorporated inthe principle of the present invention.

It is preferable that each of the proxy server 300 and the informationprocessing apparatus 100 and the Web server 200 be installed withsoftware such as an operating system and middleware for making full useof a hardware resource thereof. Preferably, each of the proxy server 300and the Web server 200 is realized by eServer pSeries® as a servercomputer installed with AIX® as an operating system provided byInternational Business Machines Corporation. Moreover, preferably, theinformation processing apparatus 100 is realized by a personal computer(PC) installed with Windows® 2000 as an operating system provided byMicrosoft Corporation. In addition, the information processing apparatus100 is installed with a Web browser as other software. As such a Webbrowser, a general Web browser such as Netscape Navigator of NetscapeCommunications Corporations and Internet Explorer of MicrosoftCorporation is applicable.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of an informationprocessing system according to the present invention for creating adigest of a document the layout of which is determined. This embodimentis configured such that a Web page is to be processed, and that aninformation processing apparatus as a client issues a request to the Webserver through the proxy server to acquire the Web page. The system ofthis embodiment comprises: the proxy server including the digest screendisplay priority information creating means 40 and the digest screenregion layout information creating means 42; and the informationprocessing apparatus including the digest screen display contentdeciding means 41, the digest screen region merging relationship settingmeans 43, the detail screen display content deciding means 44, and thecontrol information creating means having the detail screen displaypriority information creating means 45, the detail screen region layoutinformation creating means 46 and the detail screen region mergingrelationship setting means 47. Moreover, the digest screen displaycontent deciding means 41 includes the digest screen display contentchanging means 48. Note that it is also possible to mount functionsprovided by the digest screen display priority information creatingmeans 40 and the digest screen region layout information creating means42, both of which are provided in the proxy server, onto the Web serveror the information processing apparatus.

The function of the digest screen display priority information creatingmeans 40 is realized by executing a program code recorded in theforegoing storage device such as the hard disk, in which hardwareresources such as the storage devices 13 and 30, the central processingunit 1 and the main memory 4 are mainly utilized. The digest screendisplay priority information creating means 40 has functions to obtaindisplay priorities of display elements based on the attributes of thedisplay elements belonging to each region of the Web pages formed of theplurality of regions, and to prepare information concerning the displaypriorities.

Here, the Web page (HTML document) to be inputted is divided intoregions of semantic clusters, and is imparted with significance for eachof the regions. Note that such division of the regions and impartment ofthe significance can be realized using a publicly known technologyincluding a method for automatically analyzing the regions based oninformation in the document, such as HTML tags, a method for manuallypreparing external annotations, and the like. The display elements ofthe document belong to any one of the regions, and are units to becontrolled whether or not to be displayed. As specific examples of theunits to be controlled whether or not to be displayed, portionsdelimited by the HTML tags, or sentences or words are given.

In this embodiment, as attributes of the display elements for use whenobtaining the display priorities of the display elements, areas of thedisplay elements, emerging positions of the display elements in theregions to which the elements belong and the significance of the regionsto which the elements belong are used. However, it is needless to saythat the attributes are not limited to these. In such a way, in theevent of obtaining the display priorities of the display elements,information intrinsic to the client is not required in principle. Acalculation method for the display priorities will be described later.

The function of the digest screen display content deciding means 41 isrealized by executing a program code recorded in the foregoing storagedevice such as the hard disk, in which the hardware resources such asthe storage devices 13 and 30, the central processing unit 1 and themain memory 4 are mainly utilized. The digest screen display contentdeciding means 41 has functions to select the display elements based onthe display priorities of the display elements, and to decide all of theselected display elements as a display content of the digest screenunder the condition where the total display area of all of the selecteddisplay elements does not exceed a required display area. Hence, thereis a possibility that a region formed only of display elements havinglow priorities is not displayed on the digest screen at all.

The required display area is a display area required directly by a useror indirectly by the information processing apparatus. In thisembodiment, the required display area is set to a current window size ofthe Web browser. Note that, in the description below, this display areais referred to as an “acceptable area” in the meaning that an area fordisplaying the document must be set within the concerned display area.

The function of the digest screen region layout information creatingmeans 42 is realized by executing a program code recorded in theforegoing storage device such as the hard disk, in which the hardwareresources such as the storage devices 13 and 30, the central processingunit 1 and the main memory 4 are mainly utilized. The digest screenregion layout information creating means 42 has a function to createlayout information for the regions, which is utilized when setting amerging relationship between a display area and a non-display area onthe digest screen. As described above, there is a possibility that aregion having low priorities is not displayed on the digest screen atall. Therefore, it is necessary to merge such a non-display region witha display region other than the same in accordance with a predeterminedrule for the purpose of ensuring accesses to the non-display region bythe user. In this case, which region is displayed or not on the digestscreen depends on circumstances of the client, such as a font sizedesired by the user and a window size of an application for displayingthe document. However, the information intrinsic to the client is notrequired for creating the layout information for the regions. Hence, asdescribed above, the digest screen region layout information creatingmeans 42 can be provided as an independent function of the proxy server.Note that a creation method for the layout information for the regionswill be described later.

The function of the digest screen region merging relationship settingmeans 43 is realized by executing a program code recorded in theforegoing storage device such as the hard disk, in which the hardwareresources such as the storage devices 13 and 30, the central processingunit 1 and the main memory 4 are mainly utilized. The digest screenregion merging relationship setting means 43 has a function to decide,after the display content of the digest screen is determined, a mergingregion, with which the region that is not displayed on the digest screenat all is merged, from among the regions displayed on the digest screen.In this event, the layout information for the regions, which has beencreated by the digest screen region layout information creating means42, is utilized. Note that the regions displayed on the digest screeninclude not only ones all the display elements of which are displayed onthe digest screen but also ones part of the display elements of whichare displayed on the digest screen. Hereinafter, such regions arereferred to as “visible regions,” and the regions that are not displayedon the digest screen at all are referred to as “invisible regions.”Moreover, in the merging relationship, invisible regions merged with theother regions are referred to as “merged regions,” and visible regionsthat merge the merged regions are referred to as “merging regions.” Asetting method for the merging relationship will be described later.

The function of the detail screen display content deciding means 44 isrealized by executing a program code recorded in the foregoing storagedevice such as the hard disk, in which the hardware resources such asthe storage devices 13 and 30, the central processing unit 1 and themain memory 4 are mainly utilized. The detail screen display contentdeciding means 44 has a function to decide, as a display content of thedetail screen, a region group formed of regions displayed on the digestscreen and merged regions merged with the displayed regions in responseto that a detail display of the displayed regions is required. In thisevent, the detail screen display content deciding means 44 refers to amerging relationship among the regions set by the digest screen regionmerging relationship setting means 43. Moreover, when the foregoinggroup of regions cannot be fitted within the acceptable area, the detailscreen display content deciding means 44 selects the display elementsbased on the display priorities obtained by the detail screen displaypriority information creating means 45 to be described later, thuscreating the digest of the detail screen. In this event, the mergingrelationship among the regions on the detail screen is set by the detailscreen region layout information creating means 46 and the detail screenregion merging relationship setting means 47, which are to be describedlater.

The function of the detail screen display priority information creatingmeans 45 is realized by executing a program code recorded in theforegoing storage device such as the hard disk, in which the hardwareresources such as the storage devices 13 and 30, the central processingunit 1 and the main memory 4 are mainly utilized. The detail screendisplay priority information creating means 45 has a similar function tothat of the digest screen display priority information creating means 40except that target display elements are different.

The function of the detail screen region layout information creatingmeans 46 is realized by executing a program code recorded in theforegoing storage device such as the hard disk, in which the hardwareresources such as the storage devices 13 and 30, the central processingunit 1 and the main memory 4 are mainly utilized. The detail screenregion layout information creating means 46 has a similar function tothat of the digest screen region layout information creating means 42except that target regions are different.

The function of the detail screen region merging relationship settingmeans 47 is realized by executing a program code recorded in theforegoing storage device such as the hard disk, in which the hardwareresources such as the storage devices 13 and 30, the central processingunit 1 and the main memory 4 are mainly utilized. The detail screenregion merging relationship setting means 47 has a similar function tothat of the digest screen region merging relationship setting means 43except that target regions are different.

The digest screen display content changing means 48 is included in thedigest screen display content deciding means 41, and has a function tochange the display content of the digest screen based on operations ofthe user. Here, as the operation of the user, there are operationsperformed directly for the digest screen and performed indirectly forthe detail screen. As an example of the latter one, an operation whenclosing the detail screen and returning to the digest screen can begiven. In this case, the digest screen display content changing means 48changes an initial one of the digest screen to another one at the timingwhen the user returns to the digest screen. In addition, the digestscreen display content changing means 48 can also change the displaycontent of the digest screen automatically, accompanying the operationof the user.

As changes of the digest screen, in this embodiment, there areconsidered five kinds, which are: enlargement of a specific region;reduction of a specific region; deletion of a specific region; displayof a specific invisible region; and selection of a specific region.Specific changing methods will be described later.

Next, concrete operations of the information processing system of thepresent invention will be described in accordance with a general orderwhen a user browses a Web page.

1. Method for Creating Digest Screen

Here, a flow of processing from acquiring the Web page from the Webserver through the proxy server to creating the digest of the Web pagewill be described. FIG. 3 is a view showing portions relating to thedigest screen creation, which are extracted from FIG. 2. As shown inFIG. 3, the digest screen display priority information creating means40, the digest screen display content deciding means 41, the digestscreen region layout information creating means 42 and the digest screenregion merging relationship setting means 43 relate to the creation ofthe digest screen.

FIG. 4 is an overall flowchart showing an example of the method forcreating a digest screen. In Step S10 of FIG. 4, the digest screendisplay priority information creating means 40 obtains the displaypriorities of all of the display elements of the Web page, and creates asequence of the display elements arrayed in order of the displaypriorities thereof. Next, in Step S12, the digest screen region layoutinformation creating means 42 creates layout information for the regionsof the Web page. Next, in Step S14, the digest screen display contentdeciding means 41 decides the display content of the digest screen basedon the acceptable area and the sequence of the display elements receivedfrom the digest screen display priority information creating means 40.Finally, in Step S16, the digest screen region merging relationshipsetting means 43 sets the merging relationship between the display areaand the non-display area on the digest screen based on the layoutinformation for the regions, which is received from the digest screenregion layout information creating means 42. Here, there are nolimitations on an execution order of the processing's performed in StepsS10 and S12, and therefore, the processing in Step S12 can be performedbefore the processing in Step S10.

Note that two processings described below as preprocessings shall beprovided for the Web page (HTML document) before the processings inSteps S10 and S12. One is processing for scanning a tree structure (DOMtree) made from the Web page and embedding therein <SPAN> tags as directparents of texts, images and the like displayed on the Web browser.Thus, it is made possible to uniformly treat processings for contentssuch as the texts and the images as processing for the <SPAN> tags. The“display element” referred to in this embodiment shall mean one formedby combining each of the texts, images and the like with the <SPAN> tagas the direct parent thereof. Note that, in the general Web browser,there is no change on the appearance of the Web page even if suchprocessing is provided. Another processing is processing for dividing atext into pieces with a suitable length by using, as hints, punctuationmarks including commas and periods, segments of words and the like. Eachof the divided texts has the <SPAN> tag as its parent, and becomes adisplay element. Note that in the case of performing such processings,regional information intrinsic to the Web page, that is, the locationsand significance of the respective regions are referred to. Typically,this information is stored as a file of an XML format, and the locationsand significance of the respective regions are expressed as attributesof XML tags. XPaths can be utilized for designating the locations of theregions on the original Web page. Moreover, the significance areindicated by real numbers of 0 or more.

Next, an operation of creating the sequence of the display elementsarrayed in order of the display priorities thereof, which is performedby the digest screen display priority information creating means 40,will be concretely described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5and the explanatory state view of FIG. 6. In Step S20 of FIG. 5, thedigest screen display priority information creating means 40 arrays, foreach of the regions of the Web page, the display elements belongingthereto in accordance with a predetermined criterion. In principle, thedisplay priorities are put in this array order. Hence, as thepredetermined criterion, for example, the sequence where the displayelements emerge on the Web page is conceivable. According to thecriterion, when only a part of a region is displayed on the digestscreen, display elements belonging to the region will be sequentiallyselected in order from a head thereof without skipping any one of thefollowing elements, and the selected display elements will be displayedon the digest screen. Moreover, as other criteria, HTML tags andattributes of the tags, which are ancestors of the respective displayelements in the DOM tree, are conceivable. Furthermore, when the displayelements are texts, the display elements can be weighted based onwhether the texts contain a particular keyword. In the case of usingthese criteria, when a part of the regions is displayed on the digestscreen, a “large text,” a “colored text,” a “text containing animportant keyword” and the like will be displayed on the digest screenpreferentially.

Next, in order to grasp the display area on the Web browser, a“cumulative length” of each of the display elements is obtained (StepS22). An example of the “length” is the number of characters of thetext. Also for the image, if possible, a “length” compatible with thatof the text is obtained by use of a “width attribute” and a “heightattribute.” When these attributes cannot be used, it is assumed that theimage has a predetermined “length.” Specifically, for example, aconstant is established such that “the image is regarded to have a widthof 200 pixels and a height of 200 pixels,” and the established constantis converted into the “length” of the text. The display elements arearrayed for each of the regions as determined in Step S20, and“cumulative lengths” of the respective regions to each thereof areobtained. For example, if four display elements in a certain region has“lengths” of 10, 5, 20 and 15 in order, the “cumulative lengths” become10, 15, 35 and 50, respectively. Moreover, the “length” of the wholeregion is also obtained (Step S24). This is obtained by defining the“cumulative length” of the last element in the region as the “length” ofthe whole region. Next, “ratios of the cumulative lengths” of therespective display elements in the region are obtained (Step S26). The“ratios of the cumulative lengths” are obtained by dividing the“cumulative lengths” of the display elements by the “length” of thewhole region for each thereof. Hence, the “ratio of the cumulativelength” of the last display element in the region always becomes 1, andthe display elements other than the last one take values larger than 0and smaller than 1.

Finally, the display priorities of the display elements are obtained,the display elements are sorted on the whole of the Web page in order ofthe display priorities, and the sequence of the display elements arrayedin order of the display priorities are created (Step S28). Here, thedisplay priorities are obtained by dividing the “ratios of thecumulative lengths” of the respective display elements obtained in StepS26 by the “significance” of the region to which the display elementsbelong for each thereof (however, this processing is not performed forthe region the “significance” of which is 0, and the region shallforcibly be set as an “invisible region”). Hence, the smaller the valuesof the display priorities are, the higher the priorities the displaypriorities indicate. The above processing will be described withreference to the explanatory state view of FIG. 6. FIG. 6( a) showsstates of the display elements for each of the regions before sorted. InFIG. 6( a), the rectangles indicate regions, and the squares and thecircles indicate display elements belonging to the regions. In theillustrated example, the Web page is formed of three regions, which arethe regions 50, 51 and 52, and these regions have significance of 0.9,0.5 and 0.1, respectively. Region numbers added in emerging order on theWeb page are given to the respective regions. Here, the region numbers1, 2 and 3 are given to the regions 50, 51 and 52, respectively.Moreover, the predetermined criterion for arraying the display elementsis an emerging order thereof in each of the regions here. With regard tothe numbers written in each of the display elements, the numbers on theupper row indicate the foregoing region number and an emerging order inthe region (“x-y” denotes a y-th display element in a region of a regionnumber x), the number on the middle row indicates a “ratio of thecumulative length,” and the number on the lower row indicates a “displaypriority.” In this processing, a blank or a bullet of an itemized textis not treated as a single display element but treated as one unifiedwith the next display element. In FIG. 6( a), the first, third and fifthdisplay elements in the region of the region number 2 correspond to suchunified elements, and are represented by circles. Then, when sortingthese display elements in ascending order of the display priorities, thedisplay elements turn into the state shown in FIG. 6( b). Note that thedisplay priorities of the display elements such as bullets are notconsidered.

Next, an operation of creating the layout information for the regions,which is performed by the digest screen region layout informationcreating means 42, will be concretely described with reference to theflowchart of FIG. 7 and the explanatory correspondence relationship viewof FIG. 8. First, a Web page to be processed is shown in FIG. 8( a). Inthe illustrated example, two tables are made by <TABLE> tags, and onetable is nested in the other. The outside table is drawn by thealternate long and short dashed lines, and has three cells in thelongitudinal direction. The inside of the center cell further has atable. This inside table is drawn by the dotted lines, and has fourcells in the lateral direction. Each cell includes one or more regions,and each region is represented by a rectangle. The numbers written inthe rectangles indicate region numbers. As described above, in the HTMLdocument, layouting in which the document is aligned longitudinally andlaterally is realized by the structure of the table, which is made bythe <TABLE> tags. The tree showing the layout of the regions on the Webpages is shown in FIG. 8( b). In FIG. 8( b), leaves represented by thesquares correspond to the regions, and numbers written in the squaresindicate the region numbers of the regions corresponding thereto.Moreover, nodes represented by the circles correspond to cells ortables. This tree shown in FIG. 8( b) is the layout information for theregions. A method for creating the tree shown in FIG. 8( b) will beconcretely described below.

In Step S30 of FIG. 7, upon receiving the Web page shown in FIG. 8( a),the digest screen region layout information creating means 42 creates atree structure having HTML tags as nodes. Next, in this tree structure,portions that indicate the regions are defined as leaves, and the tablethat houses the regions (which is indicted by the <TABLE> tags) andcells in the table (which are indicated by <TD> tags and <TH> tags) aredefined as intermediate nodes (Step S32). In this case, a group ofregions located outside the outermost table is also adapted to form anintermediate node that merges adjacent regions into one. Thereafter,residual nodes are deleted to roll forward the intermediate nodes andthe leaves, and then, the tree shown in FIG. 8( b) is finally created(Step S34). Note that, when the digest screen region layout informationcreating means 42 is provided as a function of a proxy server, the treeshowing the layout among the regions can be easily transmitted to aclient by being represented as a text such as, for example, ((1, 2, 3),((4, 5), 6, 7, 8), (9, 10)).

Next, an operation of deciding the display content of the digest screen,which is performed by the digest screen display content deciding means41, will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 9. In StepS40 of FIG. 9, first, 1 is assigned to the variable i. Here, i indicatesan order of the display elements in the sequence of the display elementsarrayed in order of the display priorities. Specifically, the variable ithat is equal to 1 (i=1) indicates the first display element in thesequence of the display elements. Next, in Step S42, it is determinedwhether or not an i-th display element exists. This determination is onefor determining whether or not examination has been made throughout allof the display elements in the sequence thereof. Hence, when the i-thdisplay element does not exist, the processing is terminated. When thei-th display element exists, the processing proceeds to Step S44, whereit is determined whether or not the display content is fitted within theacceptable area even if the i-th display element is displayed. When thecontent is not fitted, the processing is terminated. When the content isfitted, the processing proceeds to Step S46, where the i-th displayelement is displayed, and the value of the variable i is incrementedby 1. Thereafter, the processing returns to Step S42, from which aseries of the processing is repeated. The display is controlled within arange where the whole of the display content does not exceed theacceptable area in such a manner as described above, thus making itpossible to create a desired digest.

Note that, though a certain display element cannot be displayed becausethe area thereof exceeds the acceptable area depending on the layout ofthe Web page to be processed, in some cases, a display element thedisplay priority of which is lower than that of the certain displayelement (located in a latter sequence of the display elements) can bedisplayed. In order to display such a display element, a configurationmay be adopted, in which all of the display elements in the sequencethereof are examined from the head, and all of the elements capable ofbeing displayed are displayed. With such a configuration, the number ofdisplay elements on the digest screen will be increased, and moreinformation can be displayed. On the other hand, there is also apossibility that such a configuration will lead to such a display inwhich the contents of the original Web page are partially omitted,resulting in a difficulty in semantically understanding the page.

Next, an operation of setting the merging relationship between thevisible regions and the invisible regions on the digest screen, which isperformed by the digest screen region merging relationship setting means43, will be concretely described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.10 and the explanatory state views of FIGS. 11 and 12.

First, the state of a Web page after firmly setting the visible regionsand the invisible regions on the digest screen is shown in FIG. 11( a).Note that the Web page shown in FIG. 11( a) is the same one as the Webpage shown in FIG. 8( a), and the numbers written in the rectanglesindicate the region numbers. In the illustrated example, four regionsthe region numbers of which are 1, 3, 5 and 7 are decided as the visibleregions, and the invisible regions are diagonally shaded. Note that FIG.11( a) is a conceptual view for explanation, and on an actual browser,for example, such a digest as shown in FIG. 11( b) is displayed.

FIG. 12( a) shows a tree representing the layout of the regionscorresponding to those of FIG. 11( a). Similarly, leaves correspondingto the invisible regions are diagonally shaded. Moreover, the numberswritten in the squares indicate the region numbers of the regionscorresponding thereto. From the tree shown in FIG. 12( a) as a startpoint, the merging relationship between the visible regions and theinvisible regions is set. Note that, hereinafter, such an intermediatenode including one or more visible regions as descendants is referred toas a “visible node,” and such an intermediate node the descendantregions of which are all invisible regions is referred to as an“invisible region.” In addition, nodes having the same parent node arereferred to as “sibling nodes,” and in the sibling nodes, one locatedupward or leftward on the corresponding Web browser is referred to as an“older sibling node,” and one located downward and rightward thereon isreferred to as a “younger sibling node.” In the three trees shown inFIG. 12, the nodes drawn on the left are shown as older sibling nodes. Amethod for setting the merging relationship will be concretely describedbelow.

In Step S50 of FIG. 10, upon receiving the tree created by the digestscreen region layout information creating means 42, the digest screenregion merging relationship setting means 43 sets region IDs for thenodes as leaves. Here, for the region IDs set for the leaf nodes, theregion numbers of the regions corresponding thereto shall be set.

Next, in Step S52, the region IDs are set for all of the visible nodeswhile tracing the tree in a bottom-up manner. Here, the region ID setfor a visible node shall be set the same as a region ID of a child ofthe visible node, which is located in the most upper-left position onthe corresponding Web page, the child being selected from nodespartially or entirely displayed. Note that, when a plurality of regionsapplicable to the foregoing condition are present, a region having ahigher significance shall be employed. A state where the foregoingprocessing has been performed for the tree shown in FIG. 12( a) is shownin FIG. 12( b). Referring to FIG. 12( b), for the visible nodes 60 and61, the region IDs of the child regions located leftward are selectedand set in accordance with the foregoing condition. For the visible node63, there is only one child node partially or entirely displayed, andtherefore, the region ID of the concerned node is directly set therefor.

Next, in Step S54, the region IDs are set for all of the invisible nodeswhile tracing the tree in a top-down manner. Here, with regard to theregion ID set for an invisible node, if there are visible nodes in theolder sibling nodes of the invisible node, the region ID shall be setthe same as that of the closest node thereamong, and if there are novisible nodes in the older sibling nodes, the region ID shall be set thesame as that of the closest node among younger sibling nodes. Moreover,also for intermediate nodes of descendants of the concerned invisiblenode, the same region IDs are set. Note that attention shall be paid tothat, in the first invisible nodes in the respective branches in thecase of tracing the tree in a top-down manner, at least one of thevisible node or the sibling node as a visible region is present. A statewhere the foregoing processing has been performed for the tree shown inFIG. 12( b) is shown in FIG. 12( c). Referring to FIG. 12( c), the sameregion ID as that of the visible node 61 is set for the invisible node62.

Finally, in Step S56, based on the tree in which the region IDs are setfor all of the intermediate nodes, merging regions that merge theinvisible regions therewith are decided for all of the invisible regionsin the tree, and the processing is terminated. Here, each of the mergingregions that merge the invisible regions therewith shall be a regionidentified by the region ID of the closest one of the visible nodes orthe visible regions of the older sibling nodes if there are such nodesand regions. Moreover, if there are no visible nodes or visible regionsin the older sibling nodes, and if there are visible nodes or visibleregions in the younger sibling nodes, the merging region shall be aregion identified by the region ID of the closest one thereamong.Furthermore, if there are no visible nodes or visible regions in theolder or younger sibling nodes, the merging region shall be a regionidentified by the region ID of the parent node. A result of performingthe foregoing processing based on the tree shown in FIG. 12( c) is shownbelow.

TABLE 1 Invisible regions Visible regions (merged regions) (mergingregions) 2 1 4 5 6 5 8 7 9 5 10 5

Here, the numbers indicate the region numbers (region IDs). The regionnumbers written on the left side are the region numbers of the invisibleregions, that is, of the merged regions. Then, the region numberswritten on the right side are the region numbers of the visible regionsthat merge the foregoing invisible regions therewith. Here, all of theregions indicated by the region numbers 4, 6, 9 and 10 are merged withthe visible region of the region number 5. As understood from this,there are no limitations on the number of regions to be merged by thevisible regions. The merging relationship between the visible regionsand the invisible regions on the digest screen is set in such a manneras described above, thus making it possible to ensure accesses to theregions lost by creating the digest.

2. Method for Displaying Detail Screen of Digest

Here, a flow of processing to displaying a detail screen in response toa request for a detail display by a user, which is made in order toaccess information that is not displayed on the digest screen, will bedescribed. FIG. 13 is a view showing portions relating to the detailscreen display of the digest, which are extracted from FIG. 2. As shownin FIG. 13, the digest screen region merging relationship setting means43, the detail screen display content deciding means 44, the detailscreen display priority information creating means 45, the detail screenregion layout information creating means 46 and the detail screen regionmerging relationship setting means 47 relate to the detail screendisplay of the digest.

FIG. 14 is an overall flowchart showing an example of the method fordisplaying the detail screen of the digest. In Step S60 of FIG. 14, thedetail screen display content deciding means 44 decides a displaycontent of the detail screen based on the merging relationship among setregions in response to a request for a detail display of the regions tobe displayed on the digest screen. Next, in Step S62, it is determinedwhether or not the decided display content of the detail screen isfitted in the acceptable area. When the display content is fitted in theacceptable area, the processing is terminated there. When the displaycontent is not fitted in the acceptable area, the processing proceeds toStep S64, where the digest of the detail screen is created, and theprocessing is terminated.

Regions to be decided as the display content of the detail screen inStep S60 of FIG. 14 include not only visible regions explicitlydesignated by a user but also invisible regions to be merged with thevisible regions as the merging regions. Thus, it is made possible forthe user to access information that has not been displayed on the digestscreen. Relationships between the designated areas and the regions to beactually displayed on the detail screen in the case of following themerging relationship shown in Table 1 will be shown below.

Designated region Display region 1 1, 2 3 3 5 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 7 7, 8

Here, the numbers indicate the region numbers (region IDs). The regionnumbers written on the left side are the region numbers of thedesignated regions. Moreover, the region numbers written on the rightside so as to correspond to the region numbers of the designated regionsare the region numbers of the regions to be actually displayed on thedetail screen. According to this, for example, when the user designatesthe region of the region number 1 and requires the detail screen, theregions of the region numbers 1 and 2 will be displayed. Hereinafter, agroup of the regions to be decided as the display content of the detailscreen will be referred to as “detail display target regions” or simply“target regions.”

When the whole of the detail display target regions are fitted in theacceptable area, the detail display target regions may be directlydisplayed, thus causing no problem. However, there is a possibility thatthe whole of the detail display target regions are too large to befitted in the acceptable area, depending on the merging relationshipamong the regions on the digest screen. In this case, in the informationprocessing apparatus according to the present invention, a digest isalso created for the detail screen, thus making it possible for the userto sequentially narrow a range from which information is obtained and toapproach a target portion while confirming the whole structure of thedocument. A method for creating the digest of the detail screen will beconcretely described below.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing an example of the method for creating thedigest of the detail screen. In Step S70 of FIG. 15, the detail screendisplay priority information creating means 45 obtains displaypriorities for display elements included in the target regions, andcreates a sequence of the display elements arrayed in order of thedisplay priorities. Moreover, in Step S72, the detail screen regionlayout information creating means 46 creates layout information for thetarget regions. Note that, also here, the processing in Step S72 may beperformed prior to the processing in Step S70. Next, in Step S74, thedetail screen display content deciding means 44 decides the displaycontent of the detail screen based on the sequence of the displayelements, which is created by the detail screen display priorityinformation creating means 45. After the display content of the detailscreen is fixed, in Step S76, the detail screen region mergingrelationship setting means 47 sets the merging relationship among thetarget regions on the detail screen by use of the layout information forthe target regions, which is created by the detail screen region layoutinformation creating means 46. Then, the processing is terminated.

Here, the processing performed in each step of FIG. 15 is basically thesame as the processing described in “1. Method for displaying digestscreen.” However, while all of the regions of the Web page and all ofthe display elements are targets to be processed in the creation of thedigest of the Web page, the detail display target regions and thedisplay elements included therein are set to be targets to be processedin the creation of the digest of the detail screen. Moreover, in thecase of obtaining display priorities of the display elements included inthe detail display target regions, it is desirable to preferentiallygather the first display elements of the respective regions of thedetail display target regions to a head of the sequence of the displayelements from a viewpoint of ensuring the accesses to the regions thathave been invisible on the digest screen as much as possible.

As obvious from the foregoing description, the processing for creatingthe digest of the detail screen can be repeatedly performed until thedetail display target regions finally become one. Note that, when thewhole of the detail display target regions are too large to be fitted inthe acceptable area, it is also possible to display detailed contents innormal display order and to delimit the detailed contents so as to befitted in the acceptable area for display, as in use of the “more”command in the UNIX(R) operating system. Hence, in the digest creationmethod for the detail screen, when the detail display target regions arestill too large to be fitted within the acceptable area though theregions finally become one, the detailed contents can be displayed innormal display order and can be delimited so as to be fitted in theacceptable area for display.

3. Method for Changing Display Content of Digest Screen

A processing flow to changing the display content of the digest screenin response to the operation of the user in order to provide a morecomfortable browsing environment will be described. FIG. 16 is a viewshowing portions relating to the change of the display content of thedigest screen, which are extracted from FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 16, thedigest screen display content changing means 48 included in the digestscreen display content deciding means 41, and the digest screen regionmerging relationship setting means 43 relate to the change of thedisplay content of the digest screen.

FIG. 17 is an overall flowchart showing an example of the method forchanging the display content of the digest screen. In S80 of FIG. 17,the digest screen display content changing means 48 adds “display marks”or “non-display marks” to the display elements as elements in thesequence of the display elements arrayed in order of the displaypriorities in accordance with the operation of the user. Here, the“display marks” shall be added to display elements desired to bepreferentially displayed, and the “non-display marks” shall be added todisplay elements that are not desired to be displayed. Which mark willbe added to which element depends on the operation content of the user.Next, in Step S82, the display content of the digest screen is changedbased on the acceptable area and the sequence of the display elementsadded with the “display marks”/“non-display marks.” Next, in Step S84,in response to that new visible and invisible regions have been firmlyset on the digest screen, the digest screen region merging relationshipsetting means 43 sets a new merging relationship between the visibleregions and the invisible regions on the digest screen. Then, theprocessing is terminated.

Here, it is assumed that the operation of the user is converted intocontrol information in accordance with a predetermined operation rule.As described above, in this embodiment, the converted information is anyof enlargement of a specific region, reduction of a specific region,deletion of a specific region, display of a specific invisible region,and selection of a specific region. Moreover, the predeterminedoperation rule is information indicating a correspondence relationshipbetween a physical operation (click, key press and the like) of the userand the change content of the digest screen. For example, theinformation is that “when a specific portion of a detail screen in acertain region is clicked, the concerned detail screen is deleted, and aregion corresponding thereto on the digest screen is reduced,” and thelike. In this embodiment, the predetermined operation rule shall be sentfrom the proxy server with the Web page.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing the processing of Step S82 in FIG. 17 inmore detail. In Step S90 of FIG. 18, the digest screen display contentchanging means 48 displays all of the display elements added with the“display marks” in the sequence of the display elements. Note that, whena large number of display elements added with the display marks exist,there is also a possibility that all of the display elements cannot bedisplayed within the acceptable area. Whether or not the displayelements are allowed to exceed the acceptable area in such a case, andwhich display element will be selected when the display elements are notallowed to exceed the acceptable area, shall be predetermined as a rule.For example, display elements having higher display priorities will beselected when the display elements are not allowed to exceed theacceptable area.

Next, in Step S92, it is determined whether or not there is room forfurther displaying other display elements in the acceptable area. Whenthere is no room, the processing is terminated. When there is room, theprocessing proceeds to Step S94, where 1 is assigned to the variable i.Here, i indicates an order of the display elements in the sequence ofthe display elements arrayed in order of the display priorities.Specifically, the variable i that is equal to 1 (i=1) indicates thefirst display element in the sequence of the display elements. Next, inStep S96, it is determined whether or not an i-th display elementexists. This determination is one for determining whether or notexamination has been made throughout all of the display elements in thesequence thereof. Hence, when the i-th display element does not exist,the processing is terminated. When the i-th display element exists, theprocessing proceeds to Step S98, where it is examined whether or not thedisplay mark/non-display mark is added to the i-th display element. Whenany of the marks is added to the i-th display element, the processingproceeds to Step 5104. This is because the display element added withthe mark does not require any more processing in any case for thereasons that a display element has already been displayed in Step S90when the display element is added with the display mark and that adisplay element is not displayed when the display element is added withthe non-display mark. When the i-th display element is not added withany of the marks, the processing proceeds to Step 5100. In Step 5100, itis determined whether or not the display elements are fitted within theacceptable area even if the i-th display element is displayed inaddition to the current display content. When the display content addedwith the i-th display element is not fitted, the processing isterminated. When the display content is fitted, the processing proceedsto Step S102, where the i-th display element is displayed. When it isdetermined that the i-th display element is added with any of the marksin S98, or after the processing proceeds from Step S102 to Step 5104,where the value of the variable i is incremented by 1, the processingreturns to Step S96, from which a series of the processing is repeated.

Note that, even if the i-th display element is determined not to befitted to the acceptable area in Step S100, there is a case describedbelow depending on the layout of the Web page to be processed.Specifically, there is a case where, though the i-th display elementcannot be displayed because the area thereof exceeds the determinedarea, a display element the display priority of which is lower than thatof the i-th display element (located in the latter sequence of thedisplay elements) can be displayed. Hence, such a display element may beadapted to be displayed. For this purpose, it is only necessary that theprocessing proceeds to Step 5104 without termination when the foregoingdetermination is “not fitted.” The method for changing the displaycontent of the digest screen will be concretely described below bytaking, as examples, the enlargement of a specific region, the reductionof a specific region, the deletion of a specific region, the display ofa specific invisible region, and the selection of a specific region.

3.1. Enlargement of Specific Region

In order to enlarge a specific region, there are used a method forenlarging a font size, a method for opening up a line spacing and thelike, a method for increasing the number of display elements to bedisplayed, and a combined use thereof. In order to expand the area forthe regions without increasing the number of display elements to bedisplayed, it is only necessary that the foregoing processing fordeciding the display content of the digest screen be performed after anew font size and the like are set. Here, a method for enlarging thespecific region by increasing the number of display elements will bedescribed below with reference to FIG. 19.

Target regions may be single or plural. In addition, an extent of theenlargement (number of display elements to be increased) may bedesignated by a user or may be predetermined. FIG. 19 is views showingrespective states before, in the middle of and after processing forchanging the sequence of the display elements arrayed in order of thedisplay priorities. Note that it is assumed that one rectanglerepresents one display element and that the sequence of the displayelements is arrayed from the upper left to the lower right. Moreover,the numbers on the upper side, which are written in each rectangle,indicate a region number and an order in the region (“x-y” denotes ay-th display element in a region of a region number x), and the symbolon the lower side indicates a display state. FIG. 19( a) is a state ofthe sequence of the display elements before the change. The symbol“circle” written in the rectangle indicates that the concerned displayelement is displayed on the digest screen at present, and the symbol“cross” indicates that the display element is not displayed. Here, it isconsidered that the region of the region number 2 is enlarged. The“display marks” are added from a head of the region of the region number2 in response to the extent of enlargement (number of display elementdesired to be increased). This state is shown in FIG. 19( b). Thedisplay mark is represented by a “blank square.” Furthermore, a resultof executing the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 18 to the endis shown in FIG. 19( c). As understood from the views, enlargement of acertain region will reduce another region (region of region number 1)and make still another region (region of region number 3) invisible.

3.2. Reduction of Specific Region

In order to reduce a specific region, there are used a method forreducing a font size, a method for lessening a line spacing and thelike, a method for reducing the number of display elements to bedisplayed, and a combined use thereof. In order to reduce the area forthe regions without reducing the number of display elements to bedisplayed, it is only necessary that the foregoing processing fordeciding the display content of the digest screen be performed after anew font size and the like are set. Here, a method for reducing thespecific region by reducing the number of display elements will bedescribed below with reference to FIG. 20.

Target regions may be single or plural. In addition, an extent of thereduction (number of display elements to be reduced) may be designatedby a user or may be predetermined. In FIG. 20, meanings of the figures,numbers and symbols are the same as those described in FIG. 19. FIG.20(a) shows a sequence of the display elements before the change. Here,it is considered that the region of the region number 1 is reduced. The“non-display marks” are added from the last of the region of the regionnumber 1 in response to the extent of reduction (number of displayelements desired to be reduced). This state is shown in FIG. 20( b). Thenon-display mark is represented by a “solid square.” Furthermore, aresult of executing the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 18 tothe end is shown in FIG. 20( c). As understood from FIG. 20, reductionof a certain region will enlarge another region (region of region number2) and make a region that has been invisible (none in FIG. 20) visible.

3.3. Deletion of Specific Region

Deletion of a specific region is to make a region that is visible atpresent invisible and to make the region a merged region merged withanother visible region. In order to delete the (single or plural)specific region (to make the region invisible), it is only necessary tomake all of the display elements belonging to the region invisible. Tobe more specific, it is only necessary to add the “non-display marks” toall of the display elements belonging to the concerned region in StepS80 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 17.

3.4. Display of Specific Invisible Region

Display of a specific invisible region is to make a region that isinvisible at present visible and newly displayed. Thus, in most cases,the display area for the other regions will be reduced. In order todisplay the (single or plural) specific region (to make the regionvisible), it is only necessary to display at least one of the displayelements belonging to the concerned region. To be more specific, it isonly necessary to add the “display marks” to at least one of the headdisplay elements belonging to the concerned invisible region in Step S80of the flowchart shown in FIG. 17.

3.5. Selection of Specific Region

Selection of a specific region is to display only a designated regionand to make the other regions invisible. In order to display the (singleor plural) specific region and not to display the other regions, it isonly necessary to display at least one of the display elements belongingto a region desired to be displayed, and not to display any displayelements belonging to regions not desired to be displayed. To be morespecific, it is only necessary to add the “display marks” to at leastone of the head display elements belonging to the region desired to bedisplayed, and to add the “non-display marks” to all of the displayelements belonging to the region not desired to be displayed in Step S80of the flowchart shown in FIG. 17.

Note that, though the method for changing the display content of thedigest screen in response to the operation of the user has beendescribed in this embodiment, it is needless to say that the displaycontent of the detail screen can also be changed by the same method.

Moreover, though the case of applying the present invention to thebrowsing of the Web page has been described in this embodiment, it isneedless to say that the application target of the present invention isnot limited to the browsing of the Web page. If control information forsetting a format of a document in a variety of document editing systemssuch as a word processor, the display priorities and the layoutinformation for the regions are obtained based on the controlinformation, thus making it possible to apply the present invention tothe browsing of the document in the variety of document editing systems.

As described above, according to the present invention, it can becertainly guaranteed that the document, such as the Web page, the layoutof which is predetermined by the creator is transformed to fit withinthe display required by the reader. Therefore, “no scroll operations”are guaranteed in the Web browsing with a PC and the like. Furthermore,in recent years, accesses from household electric appliances such as arefrigerator and a microwave oven to the Web have been made possible byemergence of pervasive computing. That the document is guaranteed to fitin a certain area is also effective when browsing a Web page displayedon an Internet household electric appliance having only a fixed andrelatively small display area. Moreover, the display elements of thedisplay content of the digest screen are selected based on the displaypriorities of the display elements, and therefore, the limited displayarea can be effectively utilized in terms of information acquisition.Furthermore, accesses can also be made to the regions that are notdisplayed on the digest screen at all as a result of selecting thedisplay elements. Moreover, according to the present invention, thedetail screen is displayed in a digest format, and therefore, suchbrowsing as approaching the target portion by narrowing step by step therange from which information is to be acquired can be performed whileconfirming the whole structure of the page. Furthermore, according tothe present invention, the digest display and the detail content displaycan be changed in response to the operation of the user, and therefore,the browsing environment comfortable for the user can be provided.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed in detail, it should be understood that various changes,substitutions and alterations can be made therein without departing fromspirit and scope of the inventions as defined by the appended claims.

Variations described for the present invention can be realized in anycombination desirable for each particular application. Thus particularlimitations, and/or embodiment enhancements described herein, which mayhave particular advantages to the particular application need not beused for all applications. Also, not all limitations need be implementedin methods, systems and/or apparatus including one or more concepts ofthe present invention.

The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or acombination of hardware and software. A visualization tool according tothe present invention can be realized in a centralized fashion in onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system—or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsand/or functions described herein—is suitable. A typical combination ofhardware and software could be a general purpose computer system with acomputer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls thecomputer system such that it carries out the methods described herein.The present invention can also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which—when loaded in a computersystem—is able to carry out these methods.

Computer program means or computer program in the present contextinclude any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set ofinstructions intended to cause a system having an information processingcapability to perform a particular function either directly or afterconversion to another language, code or notation, and/or reproduction ina different material form.

Thus the invention includes an article of manufacture which comprises acomputer usable medium having computer readable program code meansembodied therein for causing a function described above. The computerreadable program code means in the article of manufacture comprisescomputer readable program code means for causing a computer to effectthe steps of a method of this invention. Similarly, the presentinvention may be implemented as a computer program product comprising acomputer usable medium having computer readable program code meansembodied therein for causing a function described above. The computerreadable program code means in the computer program product comprisingcomputer readable program code means for causing a computer to effectone or more functions of this invention. Furthermore, the presentinvention may be implemented as a program storage device readable bymachine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by themachine to perform method steps for causing one or more functions ofthis invention.

It is noted that the foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinentobjects and embodiments of the present invention. This invention may beused for many applications. Thus, although the description is made forparticular arrangements and methods, the intent and concept of theinvention is suitable and applicable to other arrangements andapplications. It will be clear to those skilled in the art thatmodifications to the disclosed embodiments can be effected withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention. The describedembodiments ought to be construed to be merely illustrative of some ofthe more prominent features and applications of the invention. Otherbeneficial results can be realized by applying the disclosed inventionin a different manner or modifying the invention in ways known to thosefamiliar with the art.

1.-5. (canceled)
 6. An information processing system for creating adigest of a document a layout of which is determined, the system servercomprising means for transmitting information for creating the digest ofthe document the layout of which is determined to a client terminaltogether with the document, the system further comprising: a proxyserver including: digest screen display priority information creatingmeans, for executing program code recorded in a storage device, forobtaining display priorities of display elements based on attributes ofdisplay elements belonging to each region of an inputted Web page formedof a plurality of regions, for preparing information concerning displaypriorities, and for dividing an HTML document of the inputted Web pageinto said regions of semantic clusters, and for imparting a significanceforming a display priority for each of the regions, and a digest screenregion layout information creating means for executing program coderecorded in the storage device to create layout information for theregions, utilized when setting a merging relationship between a displayarea and a non-display area on a digest screen in accordance with apredetermined rule for ensuring access to the non-display area by auser; information processing apparatus including digest screen displaycontent deciding means for executing program code recorded in thestorage device to select display elements based on the displaypriorities of the display elements, and to decide all selected displayelements as display content of the digest screen under a condition wherea total display area of all of the selected display elements does notexceed a required display area, comprising digest screen display contentchanging means to change display content of the digest screen based onoperations of the user; digest screen region merging relationshipsetting means for executing program code recorded in the storage deviceto decide, after the display content of the digest screen is determined,a merging region, with which any region that is not displayed on thedigest screen at all is merged, from among the regions displayed on thedigest screen, and utilize layout information for the regions, createdby the digest screen region layout information creating means; detailscreen display content deciding means for executing program coderecorded in the storage device to decide, as a display content of thedetail screen, a region group formed of regions displayed on the digestscreen and merged regions merged with the displayed regions in responseto that a detail display of the displayed regions is required, andreferring to the merging relationship among the regions set by thedigest screen region merging relationship setting means, and when theregions cannot be fitted within an acceptable display area selectsdisplay elements based on the display priorities obtained by detailscreen display priority information creating means, thus creating thedigest of the detail screen and setting the merging relationship amongthe regions on the detail screen by employing detail screen regionlayout information creating means and detail screen region mergingrelationship setting means; and control information creating meanscomprising: detail screen display priority information creating meansfor executing program code recorded in the storage device performing thefunction of said digest screen display priority information creatingmeans for different target display elements, detail screen region layoutinformation creating means for executing program code recorded in thestorage device performing function of the digest screen region layoutinformation creating means for said different target display elements,detail screen region merging relationship setting means for executingprogram code recorded in the storage device performing functions of thedigest screen region merging relationship setting means for saiddifferent target display elements.
 7. The system according to claim 6,wherein the means, for executing program code recorded in a storagedevice, for obtaining display priorities of display elements furtherincludes: means for arraying, for each of the regions, the displayelements belonging to the regions in accordance with a predeterminedcriterion; means for obtaining a ratio of a cumulative length of each ofthe arrayed display elements in each of the regions by dividing thecumulative length by a total length of the region; and means fordividing the ratio of the cumulative length by a significance of theregion to which the display element belongs, the ratio having beenobtained for each of the display elements. 8.-15. (canceled)
 16. Acomputer program product for causing creation of a digest of a documenta layout of which is determined, the computer program productcomprising: a computer readable storage medium having computer readableprogram code embodied therewith, the computer readable program codecomprising: computer readable program code configured to effect aprocessor; computer readable program code configured to effect acomputer memory; computer readable program code configured to effect ameans for creating a digest of a document a layout of which isdetermined, when said layout being too large to fit in a display screenof a display device or when a document reader requires said document tobe zoomed for reading characters displayed on the display device, thedocument including a plurality of regions, each region including one ormore display elements, the means for creating comprising: computerreadable program code configured to effect a means for selecting thedisplay elements based on display priorities of the display elements,and for deciding all of selected display elements as a display contentof a digest screen under a condition where a total display area of allof the selected display elements does not exceed a required displayarea; computer readable program code configured to effect a means forsetting a merging relationship among the regions by deciding a mergingregion, with which a region not being displayed on the digest screen ismerged, from among regions displayed on the digest screen based onlayout information for the regions in the document, all of the regionsbeing included in the document; computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a means for ensuring access to information lost bycreating the digest and ensuring said digest fits optimally on saiddisplay device; computer readable program code configured to effect ameans for deciding, as a display content of a detail screen, a regiongroup including the regions displayed on the digest screen and theregion merged with the displayed regions in response to that a detaildisplay of the displayed regions is required; computer readable programcode configured to effect a means for creating control information forcontrolling a display of the detail screen, wherein the means fordeciding the display content of the detail screen creates a digest ofthe detail screen based on the control information when the region groupis too large to fit in the required display area; wherein the computerreadable program code configured to effect a means for deciding thedisplay content of the digest screen further includes computer readableprogram code configured to effect a means for changing the displaycontent of the digest screen based on an operation of a user; andwherein the computer readable program code configured to effect achanging means includes computer readable program code configured toeffect a means for automatically changing the display content of thedigest screen, accompanying the operation of the user, and furthercomprising selective implemented performance capability of employing:computer readable program code configured to effect a means fordeciding, as a display content of a detail screen, a region groupincluding regions displayed on a digest screen and a region merged withdisplayed regions in response to a detail display of the displayedregions is required; computer readable program code configured to effecta means for creating control information for controlling a display ofthe detail screen, wherein the means for deciding the display content ofthe detail screen creates a digest of the detail screen based on thecontrol information when the region group is too large to fit in therequired display area; wherein the computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a means for deciding the display content of thedigest screen further includes computer readable program code configuredto effect a means for changing the display content of the digest screenbased on an operation of a user; wherein the computer readable programcode configured to effect a changing means includes computer readableprogram code configured to effect a means for automatically changing thedisplay content of the digest screen, accompanying the operation of theuser; computer readable program code configured to effect a means fortransmitting information for creating the digest of the document thelayout of which is determined to a client terminal together with thedocument; computer readable program code configured to effect a meansfor obtaining display priorities of a plurality of display elementsbelonging to each of a plurality of regions of the document based onattributes of the display elements; computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a means for creating layout information for theregions in the document; and wherein the computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a means for obtaining the display prioritiesfurther comprises: computer readable program code configured to effect ameans for arraying, for each of the regions, the display elementsbelonging to the regions in accordance with a predetermined criterion,computer readable program code configured to effect a means forobtaining a ratio of a cumulative length of each of the arrayed displayelements in each of the regions by dividing the cumulative length by atotal length of the region, and computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a means for dividing the ratio of the cumulativelength by a significance of the region to which the display elementbelongs, the ratio having been obtained for each of the displayelements.
 17. A computer program product for causing creation of adigest of a document a layout of which is determined, the computerprogram product comprising: a computer readable storage medium havingcomputer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readableprogram code comprising: computer readable program code configured toeffect a proxy server including: computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a digest screen display priority informationcreating means, for executing program code recorded in a storage device,for obtaining display priorities of display elements based on attributesof display elements belonging to each region of an inputted Web pageformed of a plurality of regions, for preparing information concerningdisplay priorities, and for dividing an HTML document of the inputtedWeb page into said regions of semantic clusters, and for imparting asignificance forming a display priority for each of the regions, andcomputer readable program code configured to effect a a digest screenregion layout information creating means for executing program coderecorded in the storage device to create layout information for theregions, utilized when setting a merging relationship between a displayarea and a non-display area on a digest screen in accordance with apredetermined rule for ensuring access to the non-display area by auser; computer readable program code configured to effect an informationprocessing apparatus including digest screen display content decidingmeans for executing program code recorded in the storage device toselect display elements based on the display priorities of the displayelements, and to decide all selected display elements as display contentof the digest screen under a condition where a total display area of allof the selected display elements does not exceed a required displayarea, comprising digest screen display content changing means to changedisplay content of the digest screen based on operations of the user;computer readable program code configured to effect a digest screenregion merging relationship setting means for executing program coderecorded in the storage device to decide, after the display content ofthe digest screen is determined, a merging region, with which any regionthat is not displayed on the digest screen at all is merged, from amongthe regions displayed on the digest screen, and utilize layoutinformation for the regions, created by the digest screen region layoutinformation creating means; computer readable program code configured toeffect a detail screen display content deciding means for executingprogram code recorded in the storage device to decide, as a displaycontent of the detail screen, a region group formed of regions displayedon the digest screen and merged regions merged with the displayedregions in response to that a detail display of the displayed regions isrequired, and referring to the merging relationship among the regionsset by the digest screen region merging relationship setting means, andwhen the regions cannot be fitted within an acceptable display areaselects display elements based on the display priorities obtained bydetail screen display priority information creating means, thus creatingthe digest of the detail screen and setting the merging relationshipamong the regions on the detail screen by employing detail screen regionlayout information creating means and detail screen region mergingrelationship setting means; and computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a control information creating means comprising:computer readable program code configured to effect a detail screendisplay priority information creating means for executing program coderecorded in the storage device performing the function of said digestscreen display priority information creating means for different targetdisplay elements, computer readable program code configured to effect adetail screen region layout information creating means for executingprogram code recorded in the storage device performing function of thedigest screen region layout information creating means for saiddifferent target display elements, computer readable program codeconfigured to effect a detail screen region merging relationship settingmeans for executing program code recorded in the storage deviceperforming functions of the digest screen region merging relationshipsetting means for said different target display elements.
 18. An articleof manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium havingcomputer readable program code means embodied therein for causingcreation of a digest of a document a layout of which is determined, whensaid layout being too large to fit in a display screen of a displaydevice or when a document reader requires said document to be zoomed forreading characters displayed on the display device, the documentincluding a plurality of regions, each region including one or moredisplay elements, the computer readable program code means in saidarticle of manufacture comprising computer readable program code meansfor causing a computer to effect the step of creating comprising thesteps of: selecting the display elements based on display priorities ofthe display elements, and for deciding all of selected display elementsas a display content of a digest screen under a condition where a totaldisplay area of all of the selected display elements does not exceed arequired display area; setting a merging relationship among the regionsby deciding a merging region, with which a region not being displayed onthe digest screen is merged, from among regions displayed on the digestscreen based on layout information for the regions in the document, allof the regions being included in the document; and ensuring access toinformation lost by creating the digest and ensuring said digest fitsoptimally on said display device; and further comprising as a displaycontent of a detail screen, using a region group including the regionsdisplayed on the digest screen and the region merged with the displayedregions in response to that a detail display of the displayed regions isrequired; creating control information for controlling a display of thedetail screen; and creating a digest of the detail screen based on thecontrol information when the region group is too large to fit in therequired display area changing the display content of the digest screenbased on an operation of a user; and further comprising selectiveimplemented performance capability of: deciding, as a display content ofa detail screen, a region group including regions displayed on a digestscreen and a region merged with displayed regions in response to adetail display of the displayed regions is required; creating controlinformation for controlling a display of the detail screen, wherein thestep of deciding the display content of the detail screen creates adigest of the detail screen based on the control information when theregion group is too large to fit in the required display area; whereinthe step of deciding the display content of the digest screen furtherincludes changing the display content of the digest screen based on anoperation of a user; wherein the changing means includes automaticallychanging the display content of the digest screen, accompanying theoperation of the user; transmitting information for creating the digestof the document the layout of which is determined to a client terminaltogether with the document; obtaining display priorities of a pluralityof display elements belonging to each of a plurality of regions of thedocument based on attributes of the display elements; creating layoutinformation for the regions in the document; and wherein the step ofobtaining the display priorities further comprises: arraying, for eachof the regions, the display elements belonging to the regions inaccordance with a predetermined criterion, obtaining a ratio of acumulative length of each of the arrayed display elements in each of theregions by dividing the cumulative length by a total length of theregion, and dividing the ratio of the cumulative length by asignificance of the region to which the display element belongs, theratio having been obtained for each of the display elements. 19.(canceled)
 20. The system according to claim 6, wherein the operation ofthe user comprises operations performed directly for the digest screenand performed indirectly for the detail screen, wherein changes of thedigest screen consist of any combinations of changes taken from a groupof changes consisting of: enlargement of a specific region, reduction ofa specific region, deletion of a specific region, display of a specificinvisible region, and selection of a specific region; wherein saiddisplay area is a display area required directly by a user or indirectlyby the information processing apparatus; wherein a particular regionhaving low priority is not displayed on the digest screen, and furthercomprises merging said particular region with another display region inaccordance with a predetermined rule for the purpose of ensuringaccesses to the particular region by the user. wherein regions displayedon the digest screen include display elements displayed on the digestscreen referred to as “visible regions,” and regions not displayed onthe digest screen referred to as “invisible regions”; and whereinmerging relationship of invisible regions merged with the other regionsare referred to as “merged regions,” and merging relationship of visibleregions that merge the merged regions are referred to as “mergingregions”.